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This weekend my friend Annie invited me to her spend the weekend with her family. We decided since Syracuse does not give its students a February break then we were going to create out own! We spent this amazing weekend relaxing, skiing, and most importantly EATING! Many people complain about the dining hall food and we are no exception. Good food is necessary for a healthy and happy lifestyle. Anyway the first think that we did once we arrived in Rochester, New York Annie took me to the supermarket, Wegmans. This store is a combination of extraordinary culinary experiences. Not only is it a supermarket but also a restaurant, tea bar, pastry shop, and chill pad. Annie told me that the high school kids go to Wegmans just to hang out or take people on dates. She loved this place so much that when she was choosing where to go to school she told me that she almost went to Hobart because there was a Wegmans right across the street.

The day that we got in we went to Wegman’s twice in one day and spent a grand total of 5 hours in the store. First we went and got a snack at the prepared food bar. Then we went back to her house were her mother had prepared dinner. After eating dinner we went back to Wegman’s and shared a dessert from the pastry shop. We then proceeded to spend 3 ½ hours exploring the store and choosing food to bring back to school.

After returning from Wegman’s we did homework for a while and then at about 12:30 am after everybody was in bed we decided to get a midnight snack. The snack turned into a meal consisting of grilled cheese, Brie, strawberry jam, avocados and many random pieces we found in the refrigerator. Through this continuous process of eating we decided on what is necessary to create a “good bite”. There must be a carb, something sweet, something salty, and sometimes something fresh (fruit or vegetable). These can be combined in a variety of ways. Some of the best bites were of toast, brie, strawberry jam, and strawberry slices.

The Wegaman’s day was a also a weather phenomena. It was 50 degrees in the middle of Frebruary in central New York. This brief spring ended the next day when we woke up to a 20 degree blizzard with high wind levels. The precarious drive to the ski resort took about 2 times longer than I should have and wasted many nerves. The rest of the afternoon was an adventure of trying out new and intimidating skis and conditions. After and exciting day of skiing we returned to Annie’s grandfather’s cabin and spent the rest of the night cooking, baking, and constantly EATING!!!!

The Basketball Team: This could be interesting to examine how uniformly basketball teams are displayed. Also in this position it will be easier to see the relative skin tone and body type that is dominant among the players.

The Kiss: I thought it would be interesting to examine if the woman was always shorter than the man. Will it become clear which side is more active during a kiss? Or is there is a common position that emerges when photographed

The Rainbow: This would be more an examination of natural occurence and if there is a uniformity in the vividness of the color and/or the arc of the rainbow.

The Diver: The different body positions captured at different altitudes would show the movement of the body through air and the common arc it creates.

The Thanksgiving Meal: This would potentially reveal the common amount of dishes on a table or what the table itself usually looks like. Also it will be interesting to see if the family or food become more pronounced in the amalgamation.

Today my friend Annie came over to do some homework. We decided to try and pull and “all-nighter” in order to get as much of our work for the week done so we can go to ski practice without having to worry about doing work when we got back. She had not done as well as she wanted to at her race this past weekend and wanted to get in as much practice as she could. I am on the JV part of the team but I still really want to improve and potentially get promoted to varsity in the future. This can only be done through practice.

Anyway so both of us wanted to get more practice in and get our work out of the way. After a few hours into our “all-nighter” we decided to take a break and have some tea and cookies. Our little tea party turned into a very enjoyable time of talking about our European backgrounds and how much we wanted to travel in the future. This conversation emerged from the combination of making a list of potential spring break destinations and eating cookies and poppy seed cake my mother had sent for me from the Lithuanian bakery back home.

Annie’s mother is from England and she considers London to be her true home. As for me I am Lithuanian and I am very proud of my culture. We both could relate that we felt that when we heard other people talk about either London or Lithuania from a “tourist” perspective we became a little frustrated because we felt like they really could never understand that place like we do.

Our potential spring break destination list turned into several pages of random countries and cities. We were probably just shy of naming every country on the planet whether by generalization or specified cities. Both of us could not stop talking about how much we wanted to save up as much money as possible and buy one ticket to someplace in the world and just see what happens from there. As form me I longed to take time away from the lifestyle of school and work. I have this urge to wander and see as much as I can. I cannot wait for the fall semester of my junior year when I will be in London (hopefully). I do not know where this need to see the world emerged. I would have to suspect form a combination of a growing sense of independence while being in college, growing up in two different cultures, hearing stories and seeing pictures of my mother and father’s travels, and countless other reasons. I hope that I will be able to have the experience of traveling and possibly living in a place completely different from my current lifestyle.

The other night I was thinking about possibly stopping the entire “rush” process. Not only would it be outrageously expensive I don’t feel like I need to buy into a group of girlfriends. Also I have had the experience of sisterhood and tradition through my Lithuanian Youth Organization-ATEITIS. So as a result I am not lacking in the area that is the pitch of most sororities. Last night I might have just been in a bad mood but while I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to wear for the “business casual” house tours round this Friday I was getting incredibly annoyed with the whole superficial quality of the process. How can the girls of the house judge if one potential new member is “better” for their house than another if it isn’t my physical appearance and presentation. I don’t resent the importance of the self presentation, but I do not think you can judge somebody’s personality fully by their outfit and manner of speaking.

I called my mom and talked to her about possibly stopping. She thought that doing so right in the middle of process was not the smartest idea. Even though she hated the “rush” process and stopped when she was in college she said that she was proud of the fact that I was giving it chance and that stopping now would not do any good. Although much of the culture of sororities seems easy to pick up on it is difficult to judge something fully without trying to get to know it as well as is possible. I put myself in the position of the girls giving the interviews. They have to try and present the character of the house by just a few fleeting conversations. I realized then that we are all in the same boat and to finish out the process.

I love to dress up and be creative with my appearance but it is more for myself instead of trying to impress other with the expensive brands of clothing I wear. That is probably the part I am most scared of- losing my individuality. If I decided to pledge a sorority I pledge to myself to not lose sight of myself and not let the interests of the “house” change what I like. What I have come to understand that all the girls I have talked to hate the fact that greek life is followed by such demeaning and hurtful stereotypes and associations. Therefore I believe I have to set aside those rumors and let myself form my own opinions.

Going the road of negative feelings is hardly the way to go. As the cheesy cliché line states, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” therefore Im giving it a shot and seeing where it takes me.

For as long as i can remember i have alway been competitive with myself when i comes to school work and other activities. My parents have taught me the saying, “whatever you do, do it well” . This encourages me to do my best in all that i try. It is scary to think that getting good grades for creative work can cause my interest in that type of work to diminish. Some psychological tricks to counter this effect could be to try ignore grades all together and do only what i find fun and interesting while still fulfilling class requirements. I could also work for the grade that i feel that the professor deserves. So if i feel that the professor deserves a D i will do D level work.

This week marked the prelude to my first ever experience with college sorority life. Deciding to go through Recruitment was a difficult choice for me. My mother attended the University of Illinois at Champaign- Urbana. That school is known for its crazy greek life and my mother did not want any part of it. My father is from Lithuania and im not sure that their idea of sororities is the same. My uncle and cousin were a part of greek life at U of I and they liked it very much. I come from a family of mixed “greek” feelings. At first I did not want to rush at all and was ready to have nothing to do with that part of college. As the deadline approached I realized that having a negative outlook on something that I have never experienced is hardly the way to be, especially in college life- this is our time to be open to as much as we can. Also I was already involved with ski team and many of the girls said that even if I was not planning on joining a house the rush process was still worth going through.

Going through rush many of the girls that I talked to would say that joining a sorority was the best decision that they made and it really “ defined” their college experience. When I heard that I actually felt a little sorry for them. I mean having girlfriends you can trust and relate to is great but I don’t feel like you need greek letters to label a friendship. Going to an small all girls school could be compared to being in a sorority in a way so I knew that truth about living with girls and that it is not as perfect as many of the chapters made it seem. Women are emotional and that can lead to the best and worst memories. Also im very proud of my heritage and being a part of the Lithuanian youth organization has given me almost the same experience as a sorority. Every aspect they spoke about reminded me of ATEITIS ( the mentioned Lithuanian organization) Everything from community service to formals to going abroad.

These first couple days of rush involved a lot of repetitive conversations and it would become exhausting very quickly. Although there were some houses where I did not feel like talking as much I did not want to disrespect the women who had put in so much effort for the recruitment process so I tried to be as genuine and appreciative as possible at each house. I noticed that there were many girls in my group and possibly others that would spent all their time in between houses complaining about one thing or another. It seemed like that was the only thing people could find in common with each other.

As of now I am still not sure if I will be agreeing to join a sorority but I am still willing to finish the process and see if I can find a “perfect fit”.